I. In An Account of the Ceremonies observed at the Coronation of George III. (London, Kearsley, 1791, 4to.), I read that immediately after the enthronement—
"The bishops performed their homage, and then the temporal lords, first H. R. H. the Duke of York, and H. R. H. the Duke of Cumberland, each for himself;"—
the Prelates thus taking precedence even of the blood royal. The same fact is distinctly stated in the accounts appended of the coronations of James II., William and Mary (when the Bishops did homage before Prince George); and I presume that this is the regular order in which the Estates of the Realm do homage to the Sovereign upon that most solemn occasion.
II. When the royal assent is given to any act of grace (which emanates from the Crown in the first instance), the form is for the clerk of parliament to acknowledge the royal favour in these words:
III. "Les prélats, seigneurs, et commons, en ce present parliament assemblés au nom de tout vous autre subjects remercient très humblement votre Majesté, et prient à Dieu vous donner en santé bonne vie et longue."
"Strictly speaking, the 'Three Estates of the Realm' consist of, 1st, the Lords Spiritual; 2nd, the Lords Temporal; 3rd, the Commons. Parliament fully assembled consists of the King, with the two estates of the Peerage sitting in one house, and the Commons by their representatives standing below the bar."
Dodd's Manual of Dignities, &c., tit. "Parliament," p. 266.
LEGEND OF ST. KENELM—IN CLIENT COU BACHE.
(Vol. v., p. 79.)
Your correspondent will find the ample story in the Golden Legend. It is related more succinctly by Roger of Wendover, who has been followed by later chroniclers. In the legend, as related by Roger of Wendover, the murder of Kenelm is said to have been miraculously notified at Rome by a white dove alighting on the altar of St. Peter's church, bearing a scroll in her bill, which she let fall. The scroll contained, among other things, the following lines:
"In Clente cou bache